Play Audiobook Sample
The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture Audiobook
Play Audiobook Sample
(0.00) - 0 listener ratings
Quick Stats About this Audiobook
Total Audiobook Chapters:
Longest Chapter Length:
Shortest Chapter Length:
Average Chapter Length:
Audiobooks by this Author:
Publisher Description
A witty, intelligent cultural history from NPR book critic Glen Weldon explains Batman’s rises and falls throughout the ages—and what his story tells us about ourselves.
Since his creation, Batman has been many things: a two-fisted detective; a planet-hopping gadabout; a campy Pop-art sensation; a pointy-eared master spy; and a grim and gritty ninja of the urban night. For more than three quarters of a century, he has cycled from a figure of darkness to one of lightness and back again; he’s a bat-shaped Rorschach inkblot who takes on the various meanings our changing culture projects onto him. How we perceive Batman’s character, whether he’s delivering dire threats in a raspy Christian Bale growl or trading blithely homoerotic double-entendres with partner Robin on the comics page, speaks to who we are and how we wish to be seen by the world. It’s this endlessly mutable quality that has made him so enduring.
And it’s Batman’s fundamental nerdiness—his gadgets, his obsession, his oath, even his lack of superpowers—that uniquely resonates with his fans who feel a fiercely protective love for the character. Today, fueled by the internet, that breed of passion for elements of popular culture is everywhere. Which is what makes Batman the perfect lens through which to understand geek culture, its current popularity, and social significance.
In The Caped Crusade, with humor and insight, Glen Weldon, book critic for NPR and author of Superman: The Unauthorized Biography, lays out Batman’s seventy-eight-year cultural history and shows how he has helped make us who we are today and why his legacy remains so strong.
Download and start listening now!
"A great read for those who are proud Gothamites, those less initiated, and those who flip the switch on the Bat-Signal in order to find themselves. . . .A sharp, deeply knowledgeable and often funny look at the cultural history of Batman and his fandom.”
— Chicago Tribune
Quotes
-
“Smart, witty and engrossing.”
— Wall Street Journal -
“[A] smart, engaging dissection of Batman’s pulpy comic-book roots, his rise to campy ‘60s TV stardom, his takeover of toy shelves, and his resurrection as the dark knight of the silver screen.”
— Parade -
“A roaring getaway car of guilty pleasures—film gossip, comic-book esoterica, hilarious tales of nerd rage…Weldon writes with humor and Day-Glo élan.”
— New York Times -
“If you’re a Bat-neophyte, this is an accessible introduction; if you’re a dyed-in-the-Latex Bat-nerd, this is a colorfully rendered magical history tour redolent with nostalgia.”
— Washington Post -
“Simply put, The Caped Crusade is the best book I’ve read this year…Highly addictive reading, with just the right blend of comic book history and nerd culture analysis.”
— Comic Book Herald -
“Weldon is a dynamic narrator, adopting New York and Scottish accents when quoting comic book authors. His ‘mad fan’ voice is particularly skewering.”
— BookPage (audio review) -
“Excellent, insightful…Weldon has crafted that rare jewel: a book of comics analysis that nerds and ‘normals’ alike can enjoy.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review) -
“Sprawling in scope, yet written with breezy flair…An enthusiastic, immersive, entertaining guide for both die-hard Batfans and curious onlookers.”
— Kirkus Reviews
Awards
-
A BookPage Top Pick of Audiobooks about Pop Culture
The Caped Crusade Listener Reviews
Be the first to write a review about this audiobook!
About Glen Weldon
Glen Weldon has been a theater critic, a science writer, an oral historian, a writing teacher, a bookstore clerk, a movie usher, a PR flack, an inept marine biologist, and a slightly-better-than-ept competitive swimmer. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Republic, Slate, the Atlantic, the Village Voice, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and many other places. He is a panelist on NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour and reviews books and comic books for NPR.org. The author of Superman: The Unauthorized Biography and The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture, he lives in Washington, DC.